A set of collaborations with the London based charity.
The Kindness Offensive is an established charity that is known for its random acts of kindness, large and small. From the early days of the TKO’s development in their little shared house in North London, we collaborated to shape and grow the brand, and to present their events to the world in snappy, immediately recognisable visual material.
When TKO first stood at the top of Hampstead Heath and asked passers-by what they wanted, requests ranged from the simple; “a guitar for my son”; to the elaborate; “I want to arrange a fabulous birthday party for my daughter”. This visit to the circus we documented in film and proved key in bringing their actions to a larger audience, leading to more opportunities.
Each event grew, and required different media approaches. A lecture on kindness descended into a colourful chaos of gift giving which we documented in order to further raise TKO’s profile. More PR was needed when TKO traveled around London at Christmas in their now famous bus, with a troop of volunteers, delivering armfuls of gifts to families in need.
When ING approached TKO to see how they could participate in the goodwill, we collaborated to devise, choreograph, produce, and film multi-hidden camera stunts on London’s South Bank, and in the Westfield shopping centre, enticing passers-by to help actors who got into tricky situations. ING ran the virals on their networks to appreciate response.
The Kindness Offensive continue to grow, and are now recognised as the world’s largest creators of random acts of kindness.
Date: 2014
Client: The Kindness Offensive, ING UK
Category: Marketing, Production
Brockmans Viral Advertising
Viral hidden camera stunts for a boutique gin brand.
Brockmans gin has always been a boutique brand that distingishes itself by its mystery and allure.
We worked with Brockmans to create some of their most memorable and quirky virals. For one, we created a gin bar in the most unxepected of places, an office lift. Our hidden cameras captured office workers delighted on a hot summer’s day by a fully stocked bar, complete with mixologist, who prepared them a icy drink and sent them on their way.
For their most elaborate viral, we collaborated on an intricate multicamera produciton to convert a central London venue into a gin bar that took customers on a fantastical journey into a magical world of illusion, culminating of course in a refreshing glass of gin and tonic.
Marketing & communications for the Robert Anton Wilson spectacular.
When writer/director Daisy Campbell approached us hoping to bootstrap a theatrical production of the countercultural icon Robert Anton Wilson’s cult book The Cosmic Trigger, we realised we’d have to think outside the box in order to raise awareness of, and finance for, this epic psychedelic play.
Over the twelve month process, we worked with the talented extended team of theatre producers, artists, and audiovisual experts, we captured footage from the early stages of the project in order to produce fundraising media. At the same time, we collaborated to dream up suitably themed perks for the crowdfunding campaign
We produced and project managed the marketing and crowdfunding campaign for the Cosmic Trigger play and Find The Others ‘Conferestival’; produced and distributed the majority of supporting AV content, managing the crowdfunding campaign which completed at 111% of targeted budget, oversaw the production and manufacture of crowdfunding perks; built websites for the perk showcase; oversaw a portion of the social media marketing campaign - all of which drew support from Stephen Fry, Jim Broadbent, Nina Conti, Alan Moore and interest from broadsheets and online journals.
Date: 2014
Client: Love & Will Productions
Category: Marketing, Production
The Albion Tales
A narrative trilogy
When director Nic Alderton wanted to produce a trilogy of short films, Complexity provided the funding and infrastructure to develop, produce, and distribute The Albion Tales.
The initial pitch was a seven film mini-series co-created with writer Jacqueline Haigh, however after consultation the three strongest films were chosen and development and pre-production started. Early in the process, actress Lucy Cudden came on board and quickly proved so valuable to the project she became a co-producer. Following the production, we assisted in cast/crew screenings, website and publicity development, festival submissions and publicity, and eventually distribution of the film on digital plaforms.
The Albion Tales screened at world-renowned international festivals—including Fantasia (CA), Frightfest (UK), Molins Del Rei (ES)—and won its film-makers awards and nominations for best writing, actors, and films. It remains available for enjoyment exclusively on Amazon.
Date: 2017-2019
Client: Nic Alderton
Category: Ideation, Development, Production
Pilates On Tap
From project inception through to release of a revolutionary exercise app.
When the founder of Pilates On Tap, actress turned Pilates instructor Sarah Manners, approached us with an idea for a Pilates app, we worked with her to expand and refine the scope of the project. To our mutual delight, we ended up with a ground-breaking exercise app which created Pilates sessions in a revolutionary way, with the result that the tailored sessions, unique to each user, are almost infinite in variation.
The app stitches together in real time actual video of exercises from a human instructor. In order to ensure continuity of idea and execution end-to-end, we created the specs for the media handling, and designed and produced the video content. At the same time we created an automated media handling pipeline that would deliver correctly compressed assets. We worked alongside the developers to ensure the fidelity of the images and to test and revise the front and back ends to deliver the highest quality experience to the end user.
We continue to work with Pilates On Tap to produce ongoing publicity materials for the rapidly growing business.
Date: 2021-2023
Client: Sarah Manners, The Pilates Effect Ltd
Category: Ideation, Development, Production
Strategic Agenda Podcasts
Comms podcasts expand to client services
Strategic Agenda is a communications company with a wide-ranging gamut but working with particular expertise in the development sector.
When the call came in to collaborate on a number of podcast projects, including an internal discursive comms-focused dialogue, we stepped in to help develop and produce the scripting, record, and editorial. These subject matter led podcasts delighted SA, so our collaboration continued with further white label podcast projects for their own clients.
These more complex and wider ranging projects involved coordinating and conducing interviews with contributors and subject matter experts around the world, overcoming the challenges of variable audio quality by the judicious use of AI audio optimisation solutions, and delivering taut editorial with high production values.
Our collaboration continues with SA. The future is high quality audio.
Date: 2022-2023
Client: Strategic Agenda
Category: Ideation, Communications, Production
Secret Mill
Management, publicity, and technical infrastructure of an art gallery.
Following the plan for conversion from country house in Northern Spain to a unique, interior/exterior fine-art gallery and events space, Secret Mill, required support along its journey from dilapidated building through to its opening night and a successful launch of its first exhibition.
Complexity provided support and services across a broad range of domains, including interior design, development and production management, technological development and IT infrastructure implementation and management, media and communications production, website and catalogue digitisation and point of sales implementation, and ongoing communications infrastructure.
We were also invited to devise and produce an audiovisual exhibit for Secret Mill’s inaugaural show, profiling painter Manolo Sierra.
Our ongoing collaboration with Secret Mill will continue into their next exhibitions and workshops.
Working alongside the Secret Mill team opened up new opportunities for collaboration in the art world. Complexity worked with designers and artists to discover and serve their needs, balancing a respect for the authenticity of the artworks with the required tools for discovery amongst catalogues.
The result? The online fine-art marketplace Discreet Objects, which connects other galleries, interior designers, and VIP collectors with artists and their works.
We have created traditional technological tools for catalogue access, and augmented them with AI (LLM) processes to deepen catalogue search by object, mood, and style. Sales channels offer both traditional and blockchain currencies.
The result is an ongoing, developing project which provides access to classically produced art via the latest technologies.
Date: 2023-Ongoing
Client: Secret Mill
Category: Ideation, Development, Production
Origins
It's less about us, and more about you.
But in brief: Complexity was founded in 2001 by film-makers and technologists, to produce excellent, effective work in entertainment and communications. As technology evolves, we bring unique understanding of the opportunities. We remain narrative- and process-led. We ask first: what are you trying to achieve, and why. Then, how can we help you achieve it.
